Phantoms assistant coach Riley Cote in the bench during the game. The Lehigh Valley Phantoms played the Hershey Bears at the PPL Center in Allentown on Wednesday night, Jan. 21, 2015.

Phantoms assistant coach Riley Cote in the bench during the game. The Lehigh Valley Phantoms played the Hershey Bears at the PPL Center in Allentown on Wednesday night, Jan. 21, 2015. (EMILY PAINE / THE MORNING CALL)

Find out what Riley Cote brings to the table as a Phantoms assistant coach.

At age 32, Lehigh Valley Phantoms assistant coach Riley Cote finds himself a lot smarter and wiser than the reckless avalanche boulder of a left wing that he was for six years as a player for the Phantoms and the Philadelphia Flyers.

In 168 games in three seasons with the Phantoms from 2004-05 through 2006-07, Cote racked up the fourth-most penalty minutes in the history of the franchise (664) and has the seventh-highest for a single season (280).

Feared for his hitting and his fighting prowess, Cote played parts of four seasons with the parent-club Philadelphia Flyers before hanging up his pads following the 2009-10 season due to injuries.

"As far as the way I played," he said on Monday from his office in Allentown's PPL Center, "I was a meat-and-potatoes guy. As a coach, you expect the guys to dig in with all they have, whether they're a skill player, a role player or a checker."

"I got to the pros on sheer determination and hard work. My experience and knowledge in that department is helping these guys [on the current team] find their way. Each guy is different, whether you're drafted as a skill guy or signed as a role guy, you have got dig in and work and do the checking side of it. There's a lot more to being a pro than just playing with the puck. Hockey IQ is reading the play, being on the right side of guys."

Little things like getting the puck deep in the offensive zone behind the defensemen and taking pride in the small things like back-checking, winning a wall battle or poking the puck at the right time are just as important as scoring goals and tallying assists in the world of professional hockey.

Cote said that the young players looking to get into the NHL need to understand the necessity of the other duties on the ice in order to find their true on-ice identity and become better players.

"A lot of times in junior and college, a coach pushes you out there and says, 'Go score a goal.' It's not about structured hockey," Cote said. "At this level, it's structured hockey. You've got to check to win games. It's not all about scoring and offense. You need that obviously, but not everyone will be a high-end scorer. It's about finding yourself, what you do best, and how to move up the ladder and get noticed in a positive way."

Cote helps break down film for individual meetings and handles the penalty kill and defensive pairings on game days.

The penalty kill is struggling, but for good reason. The Phantoms are the most penalized team in the AHL.

"Too much," he said, noting that too many minutes at meetings are being spent addressing the penalties and penalty kill.

Injuries haven't helped the PK or the defensive pairings, with Mark Alt still out recovering from his third upper body injury of the season, and rookie Shayne Gostisbehere recovering from ACL surgery. Both players are expected back, Alt sooner than Gostisbehere.

But in the world of a 76-game schedule, you can't waste time worrying about who's not in the lineup, so Cote says the emphasis is on working with who is in the lineup.

He said it's no secret that AHL All-Star defenseman Brandon Manning logs the most minutes, and is usually out against the opponent's top forward lines, and that Manning, who plays with a nasty edge, and Oliver Lauridsen are the team's top two defensemen.

Cote helps the team in other ways as well. While the organization utilizes nutritionists, sports psychologists and sleep specialists to help the players fuel and recover over the rigors of the season, he has become an expert in a lot of that.

"I learned too late that you have to take care of your money-maker," he said of his body. "I learned when the wheels were already coming off the cart, when my body was shutting down."

After retiring from the Flyers in 2010, Cote was named an assistant coach of the Phantoms for its second year in Glens Falls, N.Y., and has embraced that role ever since.

Cote says he can provide first-hand relevant experience in the importance of work versus recovery.

"When you're not working, you need to be recovering for your next game, and that means eating right, hydrating right, getting rest, getting mental relaxation," he said.

"I'm a big nutrition advocate and the guys come and ask me about certain foods and supplements, and I like helping them with that," he said.

One of the players said that Cote likes to give the players nutritional snacks like dates with coconut before games.

He's also very big into yoga and mediation, again, things he discovered late in his career, but thinks they're perfect modalities to teach stress management.

"If you learn to take care of yourself and prepare properly, you at least give yourself a chance to have sustained energy and perform your best," he said. "Eating well is not going to give you Sydney Crosby-like vision and hands, but it will give you a chance to stay healthy, recover quickly and maximize your own ability to play at your best."

He said that because all the other teams employ similar philosophies these days, it doesn't really provide an edge, but it keeps the playing field level.

"A lot of it comes down to recovery," he said. "I didn't get into nutrition or yoga until my last year. I was so worried about getting to the gym and working out, working out, I didn't get the rest to give myself a chance to have sustainable energy and longevity. It's not a sprint. It's a long marathon with a lot of little sprints in there. I was reckless on the ice. I knew that, but on the other side, I didn't do enough to make my career last longer and give myself a chance to stay healthy long-term."

Score one, make that two, for the defense: Jesper Pettersson didn't just get his first professional goal last Saturday in the win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, he got his first career game-winning goal.

"It was exciting," the 20-year-old rookie defenseman said. "I was real happy. It was almost two years since I scored. It was a long time and now I finally scored."

The 5-foot-8, 187-pound Pettersson nearly scored the previous night during a loss to Hershey. Head coach Terry Murray had moved Pettersson into a swing-defenseman type of role, like a utility infielder in baseball, the same way he used Paul Coffey when the NHL's all-time second-leading defenseman scorer played for the Flyers.

Nick Cousins passed the puck to him in the Lehigh Valley zone, and Pettersson returned the favor, following up on the attack.

"He passed it back to me," Pettersson remembered. "I got the puck right on the tape [of the stick blade] and I saw the opportunity and took it."

The Phantoms picked up two goals from the defense on Saturday. Adam Comrie's first-period goal tied the game, and Murray was happy for both players, especially after both committed fatal errors against Hershey on Friday that led to the opening and closing goals of the game.

"It was nice to see," Murray said of those two defensemen scoring in the same game. "I was really happy for those two guys. They had a tough game [against Hershey], both those guys. They felt bad after that game. I think we showed confidence in them and they kept it going in critical situations [against the penguins]. Pettersson in particular, a young kid, first pro goal, big smile on his face. Everybody was really happy for him."

Defensive scoring has been a boost for the Phantoms this season. They are 8-2 in games when one of their blueliners scores a goal, and 3-0 when two of them score.

Monthly honor for Cousins: The AHL announced on Tuesday that Phantoms center Nick Cousins was named the CCM/AHL Player of the Month for January.

Cousins, a 21-year-old pro in his second season, leads the Phantoms in scoring with 14 goals and 20 assists for 34 points. In January, he helped the Phantoms (21-18-4-1) go 7-6 to remain in the Eastern Conference playoff chase, sitting in 11th place in the standings, just five points out of eighth place. He recorded six goals and 10 assists during that 13-game stretch.

Cousins had four multiple-point games and his first career hat trick in the month. The three-goal came in a 5-1 win over Binghamton in front of a sellout crowd at the PPL Center in Allentown.

Cousins and the Phantoms return to action 7:05 tonight at the PPL Center against the Worcester Sharks.